Newsletter WAEH | November 2026 | 20th Annual Meeting & Community News


🎉The 20th Annual WAEH Meeting is finally here!



From 9–16 November 2026, eye care professionals from around the world are gathered in São Paulo and Londrina, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile, to celebrate 20 years of WAEH and exchange knowledge, experiences and insights.

 We are excited to introduce a wonderful group of inspiring speakers who will share their knowledge, experiences and insights during the meeting.



Their abstracts are ready, giving you a sneak peek at what they will be presenting during the meeting. The abstracts span our key themes for 2026, including:

• Eye Hospital Management
• Patient Experience (User Experience)
• Digital Transformation in Eye Care
• Public Health Systems & Comparative Models
• Human Resources & the Workforce of the Future – From Boomers to GenZ
• Quality of Care in Eye Care
• Applied Research & Innovation in Eye Hospitals

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As a member-led organisation, WAEH values the active involvement of its members. Every year, we organise our WAEH Member Meeting as part of the Annual Meeting, providing an opportunity for members to connect, exchange ideas and contribute to the future of our global network.

This year’s Member Meeting will take place on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, during the 20th WAEH Annual Meeting in São Paulo, Brazil.

Meeting details:

• Date: Tuesday, 10 November 2026
• Time: 14:00–15:15 (São Paulo, Brazil time)
• Location: Instituto Suel Abujamra, São Paulo, Brazil
• Online participation: Available for members unable to attend in person

Not joining us in Brazil? You can still participate!

We warmly encourage all WAEH members to join, whether in person or online. The online meeting link has been shared with the CEOs of our member organisations. 
You can also contact Maaike van Zuilen via  to request the link.

We look forward to seeing you and hearing your voice!

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Meet this year’s hosts

We are very happy to have such wonderful hosts welcoming us this year. The meeting is hosted by three leading eye care organisations: Instituto Suel Abujamrain São Paulo and Hoftalon Eye Hospital in Londrina, Brazil, and Clínica Oftalmológica Pasteur in Santiago, Chile.

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Amazon Pre-Visit

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Celebrating our sponsors for the 20th Annual WAEH Meeting

As  the 20th Annual WAEH Meeting is taking place from 9–16 November 2026 in Brazil and Chile, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation to all the organisations supporting this special jubilee edition.

Their support plays an important role in bringing together eye hospitals and ophthalmology professionals from around the world, creating opportunities for knowledge exchange, international collaboration and shared learning.

We are grateful to our confirmed sponsors and partners:

São Paulo, Brazil

• Alcon – Diamond
• Cristália – Gold
• Bayer – Gold
• Abbvie – Gold
• SOMA SP – Silver
• HE Vision Group – Silver
• Bausch – Silver
• Adapt – Silver
• Matria – Silver
• Oft Group – Silver

Londrina, Brazil

• Vallions Tecnologia Ltda (PACS) 
• PegaExames Tecnologia Ltda
• Londrina Unity Health Ltda

Santiago, Chile

• Alcon
• Pharmatech

Santiago, Chile

• Alcon
• Pharmatech

Thank you for being part of this milestone in the WAEH journey and for supporting our shared commitment to advancing eye hospital care worldwide.

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WAEH Community of Practice

Nurses and Allied Health Personnel|
29 October 2026

On Thursday 29 October 2026 the WAEH Community of Practice on Nurses & Allied Health Personnel took place, bringing together eye care professionals from across the globe to discuss the development, implementation and impact of nurse-led corneal cross-linking services. The meeting was led by Tendai Gwenhure, Senior Clinical Educator from Moorfields Eye Hospital (London, United Kingdom) and Diana Malata, Advanced Nurse from Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (Dublin, Ireland), with presentations from Diana Malata and Noel Binza, Cross-Linking Specialist Nurse at King’s College Hospital (London, United Kingdom), and a warm welcome from Maaike van Zuilen, global lead of the WAEH. 

The session brought together participants representing Moorfields Eye Hospital (the United Kingdom), Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai (the United Arab Emirates), Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital (Ireland), King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital (Saudi Arabia), Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (Australia), Hoftalon Hospital de Olhos (Brazil), Singapore National Eye Centre (Singapore), Rotterdam Eye Hospital (the Netherlands), UMHC Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (the United States) and St. Erik Eye Hospital (Sweden). 

The Community of Practice highlighted the importance of international knowledge exchange, sharing best practices and learning from one another to improve patient care. The central theme was how collaboration between hospitals and healthcare professionals can support the development of nurse-led services, expand clinical capacity and improve access to timely treatment.

A particularly strong example of the added value of WAEH was shared by Diana Malata, who explained how international collaboration helped bring nurse-led corneal cross-linking to hospitals beyond her own. After learning from Moorfields Eye Hospital when establishing the service in Dublin, Diana later shared her hospital’s experience, protocols and documentation with colleagues at Sunshine Coast Health in Australia. Through connections facilitated by WAEH, this knowledge exchange contributed to the launch of Australia’s first nurse-led corneal cross-linking service in November 2025. Her experience demonstrated how the WAEH Community of Practice goes beyond sharing knowledge: it creates connections that enable hospitals to learn from one another, adapt successful practices and ultimately improve access to patient care across different healthcare systems.

The Community of Practice – Nurses & Allied Health Personnel will come together again on Thursday May 27 2027 at 01.00 PM CEST.

Note: the WAEH Community is for members only. Not registered yet? Please register yourself here for the WAEH Community using your hospital email address. 

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WAEH Community of Practice

Innovation|
17 December 2026

On December 17, the Innovation Community of Practice will meet again! 

This group is led by Nathalie Popken, Manager Innovation & Research from The Rotterdam Eye Hospital (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and Joy Adesanya, Assistant Divisional Manager from Moorfields Eye Hospital (the United Kingdom).

The topic will be announced soon.

🗓️ Thursday, December 17 2026
🕐 01:00 PM CET
💻 Online (Zoom)

Are you interested in participating in this Community of Practice? Register now!👇🏼

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WAEH Community of Practice

Next Meetings

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WAEH projects of 2026

Each year, three to four projects are carried out to help improve ophthalmic care on a global scale. These projects are funded through the general WAEH budget, and the insights and results are shared with the wider global eye hospital community during the Annual Meeting and through the WAEH Knowledge Hub.

On 31 August, we will officially launch this year’s projects. During the Project Launch, experts from Aravind Eye Care System, India and Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Australia will share their knowledge and insights on key project skills, helping project teams get off to a strong start.

This year the following 4 projects started:

• Development and Evaluation of a Nurse-Led Ophthalmic Emergency Triage Protocol
• Visions App: Multilingual Expansion Platform
• Establishment of WAEH Dashboard
• Development of a Practical Glaucoma Grading System

Are you interested to be part of these projects? Contact Maaike van Zuilen.

Want to read more about the projects of 2026?

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Looking ahead to 2027

WAEH Project Funding

If your eye hospital is a WAEH member, you may be eligible for project funding. Each year, the WAEH supports three to four projects with grants of up to €7,500 per project.

Next application round

• Submission deadline: 31 January 2027
• Review: Proposals will be evaluated by the WAEH Board during its meeting at the end of March 2027.
• Requirement: All proposals must be submitted using the standard WAEH Project Proposal Format.

Send your request for the project proposal format to Maaike van Zuilen at

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Join the WAEH Community

The WAEH Community is a platform where you and colleagues from around the world canto share updates, discuss ideas, exchange documents, and stay connected. Besides collaboration, the WAEH Community will also feature news, events and dedicated groups for the Communities of Practice.

Please register for the WAEH Community using your hospital email address:

If you do not have a hospital email address, or if registration does not work for your email address, please contact support@waeh.org with your name, email and hospital affiliation.

Note: the WAEH Community is only for employees of WAEH member hospitals!

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Building the next generation of leaders in eye care

As part of WAEH’s commitment to strengthening leadership across the global eye care community (and part of our strategy 2025 – 2031), the WAEH is exploring the development of a new Leadership Programme for eye hospital professionals worldwide.

The programme is envisioned as a year-long learning journey focused on leadership, innovation, collaboration, and the future of eye care. The ambition is to develop a first outline together with interested WAEH members and present an initial concept during the WAEH Annual Meeting in São Paulo this November. Following further refinement, we aim to launch the programme in January 2027.

To make sure the programme reflects the needs and ambitions of our community, we are looking for members who would like to join a small working group and help shape its content, format, and learning experience. Whether you are an experienced leader, an emerging professional, or passionate about developing leadership in eye care, your input would be highly valued.

We are also inviting expressions of interest from potential participants. If you would be interested in joining the first cohort when the programme launches in 2027, please let us know.

Interested in helping design the programme or participating as a future learner? We’d love to hear from you.

Please email Maaike van Zuilen: maaike.vanzuilen@waeh.org

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Aruna Mehta joins Moorfields as chair

Moorfields Eye Hospital is pleased to announce Aruna Mehta as its new chair from 1 November 2026.

She succeeds Professor Tim Briggs, who stepped down as interim chair at the end of October. Aruna brings extensive NHS leadership and governance experience.

She is chair of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, a role she will continue independently, and has held senior non-executive posts at Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.

As well as her NHS experience, Aruna has also spent more than 20 years in international financial services, specialising in governance, operational risk and large-scale organisational change.

Aruna said: “I am delighted to be joining Moorfields and its exceptional staff. Moorfields’ reputation for world leading eye care is built on the dedication and expertise of its people, and I am looking forward to supporting the organisation as it continues to innovate, strengthen partnerships and deliver outstanding care for patients.

“I am committed to fostering an environment where people feel valued, supported and empowered to do their best work, and my priority as I join Moorfields will be to listen, learn and understand what matters most to our staff, patients and partners. I believe the best outcomes are achieved when people feel respected, included and able to contribute their ideas and expertise.”

Peter Ridley, Moorfields’ chief executive, said: “Aruna brings deep experience in governance, transformation and system leadership, and her insight will be hugely valuable as we deliver our strategy. I am confident that Aruna will play a key role in supporting Moorfields’ continued leadership in eye care, research and education.

“I would like to thank Professor Tim Briggs for his leadership, support and commitment during his time as interim chair. His contribution has been greatly appreciated across the organisation, and we wish him the very best for the future.”

Source: Moorfields

Date: 21 September 2026

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2026

November
─

9 – 16 November
20th Annual WAEH Meeting in Brazil and Chile
Please check out the event website and register yourself.

All CoP’s have their meeting during the Annual Meeting.

Tuesday, 10 November
WAEH Board Meeting – in person meeting in Brazil
Want to share ideas with the board? Please share: maaike.vanzuilen@waeh.org

10 – 11 November
Workshop by Moorfields Education: Fundoscopy training programme

Friday, 13 November
Workshop by Moorfields Education: Moorfields Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS)

Friday, 20 November
Workshop by Moorfields Education: Non-medical intravitreal injection course

26 – 27 November
St. Erik Eye Hospital – Glaucoma Insights course

Friday, 27 November
Workshop by Moorfields Education: Oculoplastic nursing and allied professionals study day

December
─

Thursday, 3 December | 13.00 PM CET
WAEH Board Meeting
Want to share ideas with the board? Please share: maaike.vanzuilen@waeh.org

Friday, 11 December
Workshop by Moorfields Education: Hypotony: Diagnosis and management: From theory to practice

Thursday, 17 December | 13.00 PM CET
WAEH Community of Practice – Innovation

2027

January
─

21-28 January
Training by Aravind Eye Care System: Management Priorities in Eye Care Delivery for Heads of Eye Hospitals

Thursday, 28 January | 01.00 PM CET
WAEH Community of Practice – Finances

Saturday, 30 January
Moorfields MAVERICK 2027: Advanced Vitreoretinal Congress

February
─

17 February – 2 March
Training by Aravind Eye Care System: Management Training for Eye Care Programme Managers

Thursday, 25 February | 01.00 PM CET
WAEH Community of Practice – Fundraising

March
─

Thursday, 25 March | 01.00 PM CET
WAEH Community of Practice – FAIR Images in Ophthalmology

April
─

Thursday, 29 April | 01.00 PM CEST
WAEH Community of Practice – Human Resources

May
─

Thursday, 27 May | 01.00 PM CEST
WAEH Community of Practice – Nurses and Allied Health Personnel

June
─

Thursday, 24 June | 01.00 PM CEST
WAEH Community of Practice – Innovation

July
─

Thursday, 1 July | 01.00 PM CEST
WAEH Community of Practice – Finances

August
─

Thursday, 26 August | 01.00 PM CEST
WAEH Community of Practice – Fundraising

September
─

Thursday, 30 September | 01.00 PM CEST
WAEH Community of Practice – FAIR images in Ophthalmology

October
─

Thursday, 28 October | 01.00 PM CEST
WAEH Community of Practice – Human Resources

December
─

Thursday, 16 December | 01.00 PM CET
WAEH Community of Practice – Nurses and Allied Health Personnel

2028

January
─

Thursday, 27 January | 01.00 PM CET
WAEH Community of Practice – Innovation

February
─

Thursday, 24 February | 01.00 PM CET
WAEH Community of Practice – Finances

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Questions? Share news?

Do you have a special request? Would you like to organize a webinar or share news? Would you like to be (digitally) connected to a certain person in one of our member eye hospitals? Please feel very welcome to share your questions via the new Community Tool or contact Maaike van Zuilen: Maaike.vanzuilen@waeh.org